Fire near Sud-Kivu (CD)

4.77°S, 29.08°E

What the satellites measured

This fire is not in the last thirty days of the fire list, but detections remain around this point: the curve below is rebuilt from the raw pixels, which are kept for a hundred days.

“Detected extent” is not “burned area”: it is the union of the ground footprints of the satellite pixels, and a pixel counts in full (375 m for VIIRS, 1 km for MODIS) even when only a forest edge is burning. Compared with press figures it is in practice one and a half to three times the area reported. Detections taken at the edge of the scan swath, too coarse to measure anything at all, are excluded. These figures come from thermal detection and are not an official assessment: only the emergency services and the competent authorities are authoritative.

Replay how the fire spread

The map is framed on this fire's footprint and loads only its detections. The timeline below covers the period in which satellites saw it, from the first to the last detection, with twelve hours before and twenty-four after; the ticks on the bar mark the emergency services' announcements that fall within it. The cursor opens on the most powerful pass, and playback replays the whole fire in about thirty seconds. “1 h” shows what is burning within an hour of the chosen moment : the map then follows the power curve below and empties when it falls. “24 h” stacks twenty-four hours : a fire stays visible between two satellite passes, which come two to four times a day. Both are true, but they say different things.

How the radiative power evolved

One point per satellite pass: the sum of the fire radiative power measured over the fire. This is the curve that says whether the fire eased off or picked up again, which no cumulative figure shows. The window covers 30 days; beyond that, clustering would merge two successive fires in the same place.

Fire dynamics

Loading history…

Satellite passes in detail

Pass	Power summed over the pass	Detections	Sensor
19 October at 13:28	89 MW	7	N20
19 October at 13:10	25 MW	4	N
16 October at 15:48	111 MW	6	Aqua
16 October at 14:25	82 MW	8	N20
16 October at 14:06	100 MW	13	N
16 October at 13:28	189 MW	17	N21
15 October at 01:46	3 MW	1	N
15 October at 01:09	2 MW	1	N21
14 October at 16:12	16 MW	1	Aqua
14 October at 14:06	124 MW	17	N21
14 October at 13:21	330 MW	33	N20
14 October at 13:02	135 MW	13	N
14 October at 02:03	3 MW	2	N
14 October at 01:29	21 MW	8	N21
14 October at 00:44	29 MW	8	N20
13 October at 15:33	142 MW	5	Aqua
13 October at 14:25	123 MW	13	N21
13 October at 13:42	439 MW	55	N20
12 October at 13:04	253 MW	26	N21
11 October at 14:19	76 MW	8	N20
11 October at 14:00	333 MW	29	N
11 October at 13:21	203 MW	22	N21
9 October at 14:00	65 MW	10	N21
9 October at 13:15	85 MW	15	N20
9 October at 12:56	45 MW	6	N
7 October at 12:58	3 MW	1	N21
6 October at 16:01	441 MW	5	Aqua
6 October at 14:12	250 MW	48	N20
6 October at 13:51	476 MW	66	N
6 October at 13:17	432 MW	57	N21
6 October at 02:18	8 MW	3	N21
6 October at 01:33	16 MW	6	N20
5 October at 15:23	243 MW	6	Aqua
5 October at 14:32	113 MW	13	N20
5 October at 14:12	425 MW	45	N
5 October at 13:35	669 MW	59	N21
5 October at 12:50	319 MW	30	N20
5 October at 01:52	1 MW	1	N20
5 October at 01:33	2 MW	2	N
5 October at 00:57	7 MW	1	N21
4 October at 13:53	93 MW	10	N21
4 October at 13:10	177 MW	15	N20
4 October at 12:49	35 MW	2	N
3 October at 15:46	61 MW	6	Aqua
3 October at 13:28	26 MW	4	N20
3 October at 01:33	1 MW	1	N21
2 October at 15:08	38 MW	1	Aqua
2 October at 13:49	258 MW	37	N20
2 October at 13:28	271 MW	30	N
2 October at 12:51	83 MW	12	N21
2 October at 01:09	1 MW	1	N20
1 October at 16:10	56 MW	3	Aqua
1 October at 14:06	5 MW	1	N20
1 October at 13:47	200 MW	7	N
1 October at 13:10	101 MW	6	N21
30 September at 14:06	63 MW	10	N
30 September at 13:28	259 MW	27	N21
30 September at 12:43	56 MW	4	N20
30 September at 00:50	8 MW	3	N21
29 September at 20:43	11 MW	1	Terra
29 September at 14:23	224 MW	30	N
29 September at 13:48	454 MW	45	N21
29 September at 13:04	134 MW	39	N20
29 September at 02:07	1 MW	1	N20
29 September at 01:46	3 MW	3	N
29 September at 01:09	1 MW	1	N21
28 September at 15:55	395 MW	24	Aqua
28 September at 14:06	646 MW	66	N21
28 September at 13:21	757 MW	61	N20
27 September at 13:40	69 MW	6	N20
27 September at 13:21	135 MW	7	N
27 September at 12:43	10 MW	1	N21
26 September at 20:24	236 MW	3	Terra
26 September at 14:00	99 MW	18	N20
26 September at 13:40	88 MW	8	N
26 September at 13:04	140 MW	18	N21
25 September at 14:17	78 MW	9	N20
25 September at 14:00	341 MW	41	N
25 September at 13:21	326 MW	28	N21
24 September at 14:17	294 MW	26	N
24 September at 13:42	676 MW	21	N21
24 September at 12:58	44 MW	10	N20
23 September at 15:59	12 MW	1	Aqua
23 September at 13:15	26 MW	3	N20
23 September at 12:56	17 MW	2	N

8 other fires near Sud-Kivu (CD)

Separate fires, apart in time or in space, not pieces of this one. A single municipality can have several over one summer, and a forest massif often covers more than a hundred square kilometres.

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